Curriculum Statement – Intent, Implementation & Impact

At Shobnall Primary & Nursery School, we strive to offer exciting and unique learning opportunities guided by our curriculum drivers of diversity, dreams and decisions. We encourage our pupils to make the best choices they can possibly make through the delivery of excellent teaching and learning that is not just about embedding the fundamental skills of English and Maths in children, although these skills are essential in the world today. Our curriculum is one which nurtures and develops all talents through a rich and varied syllabus. We allow pupils to be original, imaginative, innovative and creative, and provide them with memorable experiences to positively impact on their wellbeing.

At Shobnall Primary & Nursery School, we follow the Early Years Foundation Stage Curriculum and The National Curriculum. Our Long Term Plans are constructed for every subject to ensure children develop the procedural and semantic knowledge that they need to understand subject specific concepts and embed in their long-term memory. We have decided what content needs to be deeply embedded in long-term memory, considering what pupils pay attention to and avoiding overloading working memory. The planning also provides spaced repetition to avoid ‘overlearning’. We believe that a strong curriculum will include carefully chosen ‘components’ crucial for subsequent learning and lesson activities are less successful when working memory is overloaded. Planned repetition of learned material is important for embedding memory and fluency improves retention, endurance and application in performance of complex tasks. All of these concepts are extensively featured within our curriculum intent.

Our curriculum is: knowledge-rich; skills-based; relevant and modern; accessible for all; and helps develop and support the vital skills taught in English and Maths. Each subject leader has created a Long Term Plan to help pupils build a schemata. A spider’s web is a good analogy of how knowledge is stored in minds – it shows an interconnected schema. Good teaching and appropriate use of language ensures pupils make useful connections. Knowledge underpins and enables the application of skill. We strive for children to learn skills alongside knowledge, ensuring that both are explicitly developed. At Shobnall Primary & Nursery School we see knowledge and skills as intertwined. The curriculum is about how we can ensure that pupils can achieve both knowledge and skill.

At Shobnall Primary & Nursery School, we understand that SEND can be categorised in four main ways: cognition and learning, communication and interaction, social, emotional and mental health difficulties and sensory and/or physical needs. We recognise individual barriers to learning and teaching is adapted accordingly. A range of strategies are used to promote an inclusive approach for all pupils. For example, the use of visual or practical resources, adult support, pre-teaching key vocabulary, providing templates for scaffolds, spaced repetition to improve long-term memory etc. are several approaches derived from a checklist created by the school’s SENDCo.

Our Early Years team ensure that the children’s learning is based on exploration and play, which is tailored to their needs and interests. The curriculum follows the statutory guidelines set out in the EYFS Curriculum and we ensure that early reading, writing, number and phonics is incorporated into their play, developing their fine and gross motor skills.

Our Forest School provision places great importance on outdoor learning and enables the children to apply skills of collaboration and teamwork to the classroom and their everyday lives. This is complemented with the children reading a range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry around the theme too, as reading is given a high priority within our school. Maths is often taught discretely, however if there are links with the curriculum, it is incorporated alongside too.

Sport, the Arts and extra-curricular activities are given priority within our school. Such opportunities enrich the children’s experiences, and enable our pupils to live the vision of being ‘Happy Children, Inspired Learners’. We offer a wide range of peripatetic opportunities to encourage children to learn an instrument and join our choir. P.E and healthy lifestyles are taught regularly and the children have many opportunities to compete in competitions at a local and national level in a variety of sports.

We are passionate about developing the whole child, as reflected in our SMSC provision. Our values permeate everything we do and prepare our children adequately for life in the 21^st Century. We encourage our children to take responsibility for their own learning and actions, develop their thinking and questioning skills and reflect clearly between wants and needs.

None of this would be possible without our dedicated team of staff who we invest in heavily: time encouragement, support and professional development.

Please see our Curriculum Statement for further information about the the intent, implementation and impact of our curriculum.